No One Would Ever Know!

Summer is officially over! The leaves are turning yellow but, I must say the weather has been pretty good so far. There was one thing missing from this past summer though. Ice cream trucks!

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One hot summer evening after having been outside practically all day my sister called me inside for dinner. Dinner was delicious as usual. It was right after I finished that last bite of spinach that I heard the ice cream truck song playing. The music was getting closer and louder and I couldn’t stay in my seat any longer. Mom told me to wait for some juice. We were one of those families that didn’t drink juice until after dinner. I waited as patiently as a six-year-old could. Feet swinging, slowly moving my chair closer to the entrance of the hot kitchen.

Once my juice was finished I went towards the balcony door and flung it open. Then I went out on the balcony purposely leaving the balcony door open so my parents could hear the music mixed with the sound of children screaming with delight that the ice cream truck had come! Then I peeked my head inside and asked my parents if I could go get ice cream too. To which dad replied, “We have ice cream in the freezer.” You’d think after explaining so many times that freezer-burned Neopolitan ice cream was not the same as what was sold on the ice cream truck they would understand. I tried again and got nothing. But I knew that if I really wanted ice cream I would have to eat it! And they knew that too.

Then I remembered, I had un-packed ice cream cones when my parents came back from the weekly grocery shopping. This may not sound that special but it was to me. We normally ate ice cream out of small cereal bowls so when I remembered the cones, it was on! Since I knew the ice cream truck was still outside I peeked out a window and checked how long the line was. Some of my friends were still standing in line with their older siblings. A thought occurred to me in that tiny moment! “No one would ever know!” I took that 2 Galon bucket of Knob Hill Farms Neapolitan ice cream from the freezer. Held the plastic handle as tightly as I could to make sure it didn’t slip out of my hands. Placed it on the counter and got out a large spoon and 1 cone. Then I put 3 large scoops into my cone. Licked off all the telltale signs that the ice cream was freezer burned. Which made it look as smooth as possible just like it was from the ice cream truck.

My parents were busy watching the news by this time so, I ran out the door only saying goodbye after closing it gently. I pressed the elevator button as rapidly as I could and waited in the balmy hallway for the elevator to stop at my floor. When the elevator doors opened I saw that no one was in the elevator. Even though I was scared to take the hot, humid elevator by myself, I still did. I had a tight timeline I needed to surpass. The elevator doors clanged shut after I pressed the M. The button lit up, and I knew from that moment on there was no turning back. The elevator abruptly came to a stop on the main level. As I stepped off with the ice cream behind my back I knew something was wrong but I had to keep going. There was no turning back! People were in the main lobby waiting for rides, chatting so on and so forth.

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I quickly walked out the main doors of the building straight to the curb by the ice cream truck and stood there amongst the crowd. The music played even louder now than before. I held the ice cream right in front of my face. My friends turned around with their different flavoured ice creams on those specialty cones. Sarah, who was a particularly sharp and perceptive friend for the age of 6 licked her ice cream and didn’t even look at me as she said, “oh, we didn’t see you in line!” I replied assertively as I put the ice cream to my lips, “I was at the front of the line, I got mine first!” Sarah replied without making eye contact again… “that’s why yours is so melted?” I looked at my ice cream and noticed I only had 2 scoops left. That was when Malia said, “I didn’t know they had that flavour or those cones?” I didn’t bother to reply and just pretended like I didn’t hear her over my delicious ice cream.

When we finished, we went inside to catch the elevator back upstairs. I noticed there was one detail I hadn’t thought of. They all had those really thin napkins from the ice cream truck. They wiped their hands and mouths on their napkins. I quickly wiped my mouth on my sleeve, licked my fingers and shoved my hands deep into my pockets. They would have to push the UP button for the elevator since my hands weren’t coming out of my pockets! The elevator door opened to bring us all upstairs and there it was! The missing scoop of Neopolitan ice cream melting on the Linoleum elevator floor.

A fly swooped in and began enjoying my ice cream as though I had called it for its supper. They all said ew at the same time. I chimed in so that I wouldn’t blow my cover. I went into the elevator and stood as far away from the ice cream as possible and pretended it wasn’t mine. We rode the elevator in silence. When the elevator stopped on the second floor the doors opened and my mom was standing there. She looked at me and our eyes made four, “WHY DID YOU LEAVE THE ICE CREAM AND THE CONES ON THE COUNTER? NOW THE ICE CREAM MELTED!” My friends were so stunned they didn’t say anything. I stood partially in the ice cream and noticed it was still visible. I then shifted my feet forward so that I was now in front of the melted ice cream. This was all so that mom wouldn’t see it. As mom hauled me off the elevator and the doors slowly closed I could hear them all giggling. I wiped my feet on the low pile brown and orange carpet while mom continued to berate me for leaving the ice cream out.

Yes, you are probably right. I didn’t think of that 🧐. It seems like I’m usually playing catch up with these things. I wonder if Uber eats delivers ice cream? Could I order Marble Slab if I wasn’t Lactose denied, intolerant, rejected? Hmmm. I will have to test your theory. Thank you so much for reading! 😁🌴